A $500 million auction by Egypt’s central bank on Sunday will be to cover imports of strategic goods, a central bank official told Reuters.

The central bank said it would hold the exceptional auction at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), pumping more foreign exchange into an economy that has been starved of dollars.

Egypt’s pound has been depreciating rapidly on the black market over the past week, piling pressure on the central bank to adjust the official rate of 7.72 pounds to the dollar. It reached 9.50 to the dollar on the black market on Thursday.